NEW YORK — There were good reasons to like the 7-inch Nook HD tablet that Barnes & Noble began selling last fall, starting with a sterling display that bested the screens on its chief small screen rivals, notably the Kindle Fire HD. The tablet exploited Barnes & Noble's strength as a major bookseller, and also provided buyers with access to numerous periodicals and kids' content. And the Nooks featured family-friendly tools, including the ability to set up unique profiles for different members of your clan.

Alas, the Nook-meisters had some serious catching up to do when it came to apps, most notably on the entertainment side. A major part of the catching up comes Friday. Barnes & Noble is adding a variety of Google services to the Nook HD ($199 on up) and the 9-inch Nook HD+ ($269 on up), pushed as part of a software update.

Nook owners can now tap into 700,000 Google Play Android apps and games, and access millions of songs—Google Play lets you store 20,000 of your songs in the cloud for free. You'll also be able to access thousands of movies and TV shows from Google in addition to the studio content that Barnes & Noble previously made available. And there now will be dedicated apps for the Google Chrome browser, YouTube and Google Maps.

One Google feature that will not be made available to Nook owners, at least for now, is the Google Now search tool that predicts the kind of information you might want to receive before you request that information.

Google's Android has always been the underlying operating system on the Nook tablets, but Android is concealed under Barnes & Noble's own front end. That doesn't change.

Jamie Iannone, president of the NOOK Media subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, says all of Google Play will be accessible to Nook tablet owners, except those apps that would require certain hardware to function, notably a camera since the Nook HD doesn't have one.

If you own an Android smartphone and already have purchased certain Android apps, those apps will be available to you on your Nook.

Iannone wouldn't disclose how many Nooks have been sold. But dismissing reports of the Nook's potential demise, he says that "we're continuing to innovate and invest in our products."